Authoring Tool for the Authoring of Wrap Packages of Cards

1. An authoring tool, embedded in a tangible non-transitory computer readable medium, the authoring tool comprising: enable authoring of a wrap package including a plurality of cards by: (a) creating a card overlay; (b) authoring the card overlay to include or associate an overly component; (c) applying the card overlay to two or more of the cards of the wrap package so that the overlay component is associated and rendered with the two or more cards of the wrap package at runtime respectively; and the authoring tool further configured for generating a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) wrap descriptor that defines the plurality of cards of the wrap package, the JSON wrap descriptor including a plurality of JSON card descriptors, each JSON card descriptor arranged to define a layout of content within a fixed aspect ratio of an associated card by including one or more component descriptors, each component descriptor defining a component container having a relative fixed position within the fixed aspect ratio of the associated card and arranged to either contain or reference the content for the associated card respectively.

2. The authoring tool of claim 1 , further comprising a card designator tool for selectively applying the card overlay to the two or more cards of the wrap package so that the overlay component is associated with the selected two or more cards respectively.

3. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the content comprises one of the following: a text component; a video component; an image/photo component; a document component; a chat component, a location/GPS component, a gallery component; a widget component; a call-to-action button component; an audio component; a transaction component; or an appointment and/or booking component.

4. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the JSON wrap descriptor includes no scripts or other executable code that is used to represent the plurality of cards of the wrap package or to implement functionality included in or associated with the plurality of cards of the wrap package.

5. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein no markup language tags are used in the JSON wrap descriptor including the plurality of JSON card descriptors.

6. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the JSON wrap descriptor is a data-interchange object that is deliverable over a network.

7. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein them JSON wrap descriptor is a Binary JSON (BSON) wrap descriptor.

8. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein each card of the wrap package when rendered (i) has its own fixed aspect ratio and (ii) an immutable position of content within its own immutable card layout, wherein the fixed aspect ratio and the immutable position of the content within the immutable layout of each of the cards results in the wrap package having a same presentation when rendered on a consuming device, regardless of the type or class of the consuming device or orientation of a display associated with the consuming device.

9. The authoring tool of claim 8 , wherein the type or class of consuming device comprises one or more of mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, desktop computers and smart TVs.

10. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the one or more component containers are each authored to contain or associate one of the following: text; an image or photo; a video; a widget; an appointment, reservation or booking function; GPS or positional functionality; an application function; a transactional function; a link; a call-to-action button; audio; a document; or a feed for presenting feed data.

11. The authoring tool of claim 1 , further comprising: a library of one or more card templates; a new card tool for selectively creating a new card to be added to the wrap package, the new card derived from the one or more card templates maintained in the library; card authoring tools for authoring content into and a layout for the new card; and a sequencing tool for defining one or more browsing sequences for browsing the plurality of cards of the wrap package in one or more directions when the wrap package is consumed on a consuming computing device.

12. The authoring of claim 1 , wherein generating the plurality of JSON card descriptors for the plurality of cards of the wrap package further comprises: (e) selecting a card among the plurality of cards of the wrap package; (f) generating data object(s) for each component included in or associated with the select card, including the overly component if the card overlay is applied to the select card; (g) generating the JSON card descriptor for the select card from the data object(s) generated for each component in the select card, including the overly component if the card overlay is applied to the select card; and (h) generating the plurality of JSON card descriptors by repeating steps (e) through (g) for each card among the plurality of cards of the wrap package respectively.

13. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the wrap package includes a widget card that presents, when rendered, a widget that appears within a frame in the widget card, the widget configured to interact with a remote widget server while the widget card is rendered on a consuming device and to present, within the frame, one or more views to either receive information and/or present information.

14. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the cards of the wrap package is an application card having an application included in or associated therewith.

15. The authoring tool of claim 14 , wherein the application comprises one of the following: (c) an online chat function; (d) a reservation, appointment or booking function for making a reservation, appointment or booking; (e) an approval function configured for entry of an approval; (f) a data input/entry function for enabling data to be input/entered through the application card; or (g) GPS or a positional functionality.

16. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the wrap package includes a feed card that presents, when rendered, a data feed that appears within a feed component in the feed card, the feed card configured to interact with a remote feed server while the feed card is rendered and to present, within the feed component, the data feed.

17. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of cards of the wrap package includes at least one transaction card for implementing a transaction while the wrap package is consumed on a consuming device.

18. The authoring tool of claim 17 , wherein the transaction card implements the transaction by one of the following: (c) associating a transaction widget with the transaction card; (d) cul-de-sacing from the transaction card to a remote server for performing the transaction and then returning to the wrap package; (e) associating a buy function with the transaction card; and/or (f) associating one or more dependent cards with the transaction card, the one or more dependent cards for facilitating the transaction.

19. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the wrap package as authored using the authoring tool has a predefined presentation, the predefined presentation defined by: (i) each of the plurality of cards having its content presented within an immutable card layout and a fixed card aspect ratio; and (ii) a predefined browsing sequence for browsing the cards in one or more directions in response to navigable inputs.

20. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein the wrap package as authored using the authoring tool has a predefined presentation, wherein the presentation of the wrap package includes: one or more non-gallery cards, each having a first aspect ratio, and which is/are navigable along a first direction; and a gallery card, having two or more gallery components, the gallery card navigable along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction, the gallery card further having a second aspect ratio that is different than the first aspect ratio.

21. The authoring tool of claim 1 , further comprising a style tool for applying one or more styles to components authored into the plurality of cards of the wrap package, wherein the style tool is capable of applying a selected style at the wrap level, a card component level or a component container level.

22. The authoring tool of claim 1 , further comprising a behavior tool for assigning a declared behavior to a selected card or a selected component during authoring of the wrap package, wherein a behavior that corresponds to the declared behavior is bound to the selected card or the selected component when the wrap package is rendered.

23. The authoring tool of claim 1 , wherein for each of the two or more cards of the wrap package for which the card overlay is applied, one of the included component containers for the corresponding JSON card descriptor includes the overlay component.

24. The authoring tool of claim 1 , further including a new component tool for the selective authoring of one or more new component(s) into the plurality of cards of the wrap package.

25. The authoring tool of claim 24 , wherein the one or more new components are selected from the following type of components: text; an image or photo; a video; a widget; an appointment, reservation or booking function; GPS or positional functionality; an application function; a transactional function; a link; a call-to-action button; audio; a document; or a feed for presenting feed data.